


Time away

by littletechiebird



Category: Marvel (Comics), Young Avengers
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-30
Updated: 2012-03-30
Packaged: 2017-11-02 18:38:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,587
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/372094
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/littletechiebird/pseuds/littletechiebird
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Request: It took a while, but eventually Billy had convinced his parents to allow him and Teddy to go camping together. Alone. And Billy’s younger brothers hearing them plan it and Rebecca agreeing (forcing) to let them go with Billy and Teddy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Time away

He had known it would be hard, but he had no idea that it would be  _this_  bad. His mother had nearly flipped at the request — “flipped” by her unique standards, as she was generally a very calm woman — and immediately shot him down. He had even brought Teddy to try and soften her on the matter, since he had realized this wasn’t a simple request. Too bad that had completely backfired.

“I’m sorry boys,” She had said. “But I just won’t allow it. Billy, dear, you’ve never even been camping. You don’t know what to expect. You two won’t be prepared. And I just won’t send you two off, alone, into the wilderness.”

Billy respected his mother, he really did, but he was less than pleased with the response he’d procured this time around. “You don’t trust us.” He fired back, frustration clearly showing on his features as the corners of his mouth tugged downward.

This made his mother stop for a moment on her preparation of dinner, eyes shifting up from the cutting board to look at Billy with a bit of exasperation. “I don’t believe I ever mentioned such a thing. And you know that is not true. I love both of you boys. I’m simply concerned. So I’m sorry, but this discussion is closed.”

Just like that, they were so easily dismissed. What about it was so bad? Sure, he had never been before but wasn’t that the point? To do things you had never done so that you could have that experience and those memories? He was pretty sure that was something that was at least relatively important. She had always insisted that she wanted them to be well rounded children, so Billy didn’t understand — except on the point that she just didn’t trust them. No matter how much they seemed to love and accept Teddy (To this day, he was still baffled and impressed at how easily they had accepted him from the moment of mistaken confession of him “coming out” rather than him confessing his dual life) they never allowed them much space. Teddy was allowed to come over at any time, stay as long as he wanted, but he was not allowed to stay in his room. They were allowed to go up to his room, but only if he kept the door open. And in moments that he had rarely convinced them to allow him to close his door, they were allowed to intrude at any moment. 

Of course, all of these things were acceptable. He and Teddy weren’t going to attempt a thing. They had moments where they wanted to touch, where they wanted to kiss, but they didn’t do anything inappropriate. Well, not  _there._  They knew better, and also had more respect for his parents than that. Besides, they never went too far. They didn’t need to.. He just didn’t understand why they couldn’t be trusted. Couldn’t they realize and trust in the fact that they had raised him better than that, and that Teddy was too good of a person to take advantage of him? 

Too frustrated by the responses he was getting, he gave up and Teddy dragged him off, knowing it would be better to wait to pursue the topic until Billy was settled. 

So, that was how their first attempt had gone.

Round two had been unexpected, but not any more pleasing.

As Billy came to voice his request for permission once more - though he was too tempted to just go anyway, Teddy had refused such conditions - his mother had been quiet at first, thinking through the proposal with better consideration than what the plan had gotten originally. He stood there waiting impatiently while Teddy was the exact opposite. The blonde’s hand reached out to take his own, and Billy could practically feel the way he was trying to will some of his calmed nature, and patience, to him. 

It didn’t work, but it was a nice try. Besides, it wasn’t as if Billy minded the contact.

“Alright.” She agreed, and he felt his heart begin to swell. 

“On one condition.” With the addition, his hoped were crushed. He didn’t need to know what the condition was. Regardless, it would be something she thought to be simple and easy, but he was sure that, in actuality, it would be impossible.

He felt Teddy squeeze his hand, and caught the reassuring smile out of the corner of his eye.

“Your father, brothers, and I will go with you.”

Yep. His stomach dropped then and there.

She had to be kidding, right? This was just a sick joke to see how badly he really wanted to go. But that wasn’t fair. That wasn’t right. He absolutely did not want them going. He did not need them hovering over himself, and Teddy too, while they were trying to do something just for themselves - to get away and to relax. They wanted to experience something new together, though Teddy had gone camping a few times as a kid. 

“ _No_.” 

Even if it meant that they couldn’t go, he refused to have his family as tagalongs. No, it would ruin the whole purpose of going to begin with. This was the fault of his brothers - the younger ones, that is. Not Tommy, this time. And he was going to make those brats pay. He swore it. If they weren’t such sneaky little spies who did not know the definition of privacy, and if only they didn’t have such big mouths…

Maybe it would be more productive to try and start in on convincing Teddy that going without permission would be fine, it wouldn’t be a big deal. He felt like that had more of a chance at the moment, since he didn’t know if they’d ever get passed the latest proposal. Besides, he knew his mother wouldn’t enjoy it at all. If nothing else, she would probably get sick of it, and frustrated, only to make them all pack up and go back home a couple hours after getting there. The woman loved the order that she had set up in her own home, and going camping ruined that. 

This attempt ended very similarly with Teddy tugging Billy from the living room where his mother rested, eyes trained upon the book in her hands, turning her page every minute or so. His frustration had brought his cheeks to flush a bit, and as they left the living room, Teddy intertwining their fingers after he had reached for his hand once more, they passed his brothers. His eyes immediately set upon them both with a scathing glare. “You two are in for it.” In most cases, the two would have shrugged him off and laughed at him as they went on their merry way. But this time they understood that they had crossed him in a way they shouldn’t have - and it also had a lot to do with  _when_.

Things had been so stressful and busy. There was no moment to breathe. Between superhero-ing each and every night, the exams and projects from school, and catering to his responsibilities at home, there was no time for anything. He and Teddy were left to a few brief moments on missions, doing their homework together, and falling asleep together on the couch while they attempted the aforementioned homework assignments. They just wanted a moment to breathe. They just wanted a moment to themselves.

By the time they got up to Billy’s room - the door being left open, as they had been instructed to do - he had sat on the edge of his bed to put his head in his hands. Teddy sat beside him, placing a hand on his back and continued on to rub circles there. “It’s okay, B. Maybe we just need to wait.”

Billy’s hands dropped and he sat up, his expression a bit frantic from desperation. He was tired, in more ways than one, which led to the more dramatic reactions he had been having. He simply couldn’t help it. “We’ve  _been_  waiting, T. We’ve been doing everything that has been asked of us by everyone and we have been waiting just so we can have a second to ourselves and we can’t seem to do even that. If she… If she would just trust us.. We have given her every reason to trust us, and nothing otherwise.” As he quieted, he lowered his head and Teddy just smiled, gently, understanding, and wrapped an arm around the boy next to him. He pulled him close and tucked Billy’s head under his chin, gently rubbing his arm. 

“I know.”

Of course he did. He knew, he understood, because he was feeling all of the same things. Just because he was keeping quiet, supporting Billy, did not mean that he was not equally frustrated. Teddy just handled it better, but then again he often did. He was stronger, much more logical, and just.. probably all around a better person. 

Strike the probably.

“I love you.” He murmured, apology laced in his words for his selfishness. But he just felt the warmer smile stretch onto his face.

“I love you too.”

This was ending up to seem like some big, terrible conflict. It was probably due to Billy’s dramatic responses to the situation, but he didn’t really regret anything. Except on the topic of Teddy. They had laid back for a while, just resting, and as he had been in a state halfway between awareness and sleep, Teddy had gotten up. “I’ll be right back.” He assured. Billy whimpered softly due to the loss of warmth and just curled into himself. He heard Teddy’s chuckle before he heard him walk away.

The next time Billy woke, it was to the sound of shuffling in his room, and then the warmth of lips pressing to his forehead. “B. Wake up.” There were a string of unintelligible grumbles as Billy pulled his pillow closer and tried to bury himself into it more. But then there was tugging on the pillow that he was trying to disappear into, and then, in stead of getting to disappear into the pillow, the pillow itself just disappeared. He had gotten pulled along with the pillow as it was pulled away, which, by the time it was taken from him, he was on the edge of the bed. The last movement jarred him just enough that he fell off the side of the bed.

Much groaning ensued on his end, and while there was chuckling on Teddy’s.

“B.. You should have just let go of the pillow.”

There were the grumbles again. Luckily, Teddy spoke morning Billy.

“I know it was your pillow, but come on. You have to hurry. We have to get on the road, okay?”

Billy finally lifted his face from the floor, though it was clear he was struggling to stay awake. “Huh?” He questioned, and in such an intelligent manner.

“I already packed for you. You just need to get up and get dressed. We’ll get something to eat on the way out of town, if your Mom hasn’t already made something..”

Forcing himself to sit upright, he crossed his legs in front of him, one hand resting on his ankle, the other rubbing at his eyes with the heel of his hand. “T.. I really… can’t figure out what you’re talking about..”

“Do you want to go camping or not?”

His mind snapped awake, just like his eyes snapped wide. “What.” But then his excitement was momentarily gone and he shook his head. “Teddy, I want to go. I really do. But I am  _not_  going with my fa-”

“They aren’t going. We are.”

“…I thought you were against going without my parents agreeing to it.”

There was a triumphant grin on Teddy’s grin this time. “They did.”

Billy’s jaw dropped. They had done _what?_  How had he managed that? He thought he was the one with magic powers?

“Come on! Get ready! I wanna get going.”

Getting to his feet, he scrambled to get ready. He didn’t know how the agreement had been managed, but he wasn’t going to question it. He was going to accept it, trust Teddy, and be on his way. That was all that mattered at the moment - getting out of here to just be with Teddy. 

It took him less than half an hour to grab a shower, get dressed, and grab all of his bags. The thing that took the longest was eating enough without making himself sick, while doing it as quickly as possible, to appease his mother. With a quick kiss to her cheek, he told her goodbye, called goodbye to his father and brothers, and dragged Teddy out the door while Teddy was dragging their bags. 

It took them only an hour or so to reach their campsite. It was a wide open space beyond their area, which had a few trees. The air was cool, but the sun was warm. Everything smelled fresh from the rain a few days ago, but by now things were dry. They unpacked quickly, the car being parked several yards away, but close enough if they needed it. Maybe they weren’t completely roughing it, but they were starting out easy - for Billy’s sake. They had worked on setting up the tent first, which went up without much of a hitch - though it did collapse on Billy once. Then they worked on the pit for their fire, and Billy was sent off to find dry wood for their fire that evening. 

  
They worked diligently, and happily, though Billy had gotten flustered a time or two due to his complete inexperience with some of the necessary aspects. By the time night fell, they were sitting beside the fire they’d lit, having just finished their dinner of hamburgers that they had cooked in a pan they’d brought above the open fire, with corn, and sodas. It was simple, but they’d both loved every minute. It was what they’d hoped for, and needed. 

Leaning into the man that sat beside him, Billy closed his eyes, content with the moment itself. The sky was so clear above them, and it seemed almost as if they could see every star in the galaxy. He’d never known the sky could sparkle like that. Then there was the peaceful quiet of everything around them - so different from the city. If you listened close, they could hear the quiet wildlife around them. It was  _nice_.

 An arm wrapped around him to pull him close, and Billy snuggled into Teddy’s chest. “I don’t have any idea how you did it,” He murmured. Nothing was better than the combined warmth of the fire in front of them, and the warmth of his boyfriend. “but I’m really glad you did.”  
  
“Me too. Though, it wasn’t as hard as you might think.”

Billy smirked. For him? Of course it wasn’t. Teddy was his miracle worker. He was perfect and he always managed make everything go or work out just right. He wished he could be half as good to Teddy in return, but he certainly tried.

“Love you.” He looked up, seeing Teddy’s eyes shift down to look to him so softly in a way he never would understand, or deserve - not in his mind. He loved seeing that smile he got in return each and every time he said those words, or when he kissed him. So he did that too.

“I love you too.”


End file.
